Control of Grid Interface Inverters for Distributed Power System Stabilization
Agamy’s project titled “Control of Grid Interface Inverters for Distributed Power System Stabilization” is being sponsored by New York State Energy Research & Development Authority (NYSERDA) with funding of $118,171. In this project, Agamy will develop a new control method for grid interface inverters or distributed energy resources. This method combines the features of grid-forming droop control and virtual synchronous machine control concepts. This approach can be deployed on a wide range of inverters. Agamy and collaborating partner Key Capture Energy will evaluate and develop robust inverter control methods to improves the stability of the grid with high penetration of inverter based energy resources as well as assess the economic viability and benefits of deploying the designed control algorithms in existing and new plant deployments.
Higher penetration of inverter based distributed energy resources will present increasing challenges to the stability of the power grid. With more renewable resources replacing traditional generation, there is a reduction of inertia of the power system and with the intermittency of the renewable resources, power fluctuations that impact the system stability can occur if there are non-sufficient spinning reserves. This project will provide a solution to improving the resilience of the power grid in an environmental-friendly way. The control methods in this project will enable integration of the distributed resources while maintaining a grid stability that is comparable to that of traditional generation with guidelines on defining distributed resource sizing and locations for different regions of the power grid.
Advanced Power Electronics for Radio Frequency Heating
Agamy is PI on a $66,594 GE Research funded project titled “Modeling and Analysis of Modular Resonant Inverters for Radio Frequency Heating.” Radio frequency (RF) heating promises to be a more efficient replacement for steam based heating methods for underground soil heating for heavy oil extraction. RF heating can double the efficiency of the heating process compared to classical approaches. However, RF heaters require high power high frequency driving circuits in order to deliver the required load power. This poses a series of challenges that need to be resolved so that RF heating methods can be effectively and stably employed.
The purpose of the project is to develop simulation models for the analysis of modular resonant inverters for RF heating applications built by GE Global Research Center. The developed models will result in optimal performance. Based on simulation results, Agamy will provide design recommendations for experimental testing with the expected results. He will also support the testing done by GE Research through test data analysis and comparison to simulation models and provide recommendations for converter performance improvement, as needed.
Dr. Agamy is an associate professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at UAlbany’s College of Engineering and Applied Sciences. His research interests include resonant power conversion, renewable resources, power factor correction, grid interface of distributed energy resources, modeling and control of power converter systems.
For more about these and other current research projects, please visit the Energy Conversion Systems Lab page.